Formative Assessment is a teaching term that describes the practice of collecting data about a child's understanding of a given topic. Typically a test is given at the end of a unit. However, a formative assessment is a tool that a teacher would use frequently BEFORE the actual test to measure how close the student is to the goal and to gauge what they need to plan next to help the student meet the objective. As a staff we spent our second staff development day in November learning about formative assessments and building larger repertoires to check for understanding. Teachers were given Write on White Boards as one tool to help them. They were also given color coded flip cards.
